Trick or Treat Giveaway Hop! #TrickorTreatDogs

Welcome to the Trick or Treat Giveaway Hop! Starting today and through October 30th, you can visit our hosts, Kol’s Notes and Beagles & Bargains, along with us and 17 other blogs to learn a different trick, and enter to win over $850 worth of prizes! More details on the awesome prizes, and how to enter, at the end of this post.

Disclosure: The Trick or Treat Giveaway Hop is a sponsored event. All brands and bloggers have provided compensation to be included in this giveaway. Wag ‘n Woof Pets only shares our own honest opinions, and these may not reflect the values of all brands and blogs involved.

This is our second year participating in this hop, and our Lab mix Luke was so excited when he found out he’d be learning a new trick that we could share with you. Last year we trained Luke to close doors, and this year we wanted to try opening doors. Be sure to watch our video after the instructions to see how we tied last year’s in to make a fun little game for Luke!

“Hmmmm….what will we be doing here, Momz?”

How To Train Your Dog to Open Doors

Here’s what you’ll need:

Treats (we use a variety of high and low value treats including kibble)

Rope toy or rag. Something that you can somehow tie around a handle or cabinet knob.

Optional: Clicker. You don’t have to use a clicker, you can just use the word “yes” or something like that to mark when your dog performs the action you want. We start out with a clicker because Luke responds well to it (but I also often say “good boy” because I can’t help myself!). Once the trick is learned, we no longer need the clicker.

There are two ways of doing this. If your dog already knows the cues “touch” or “tug”, you may be able to jump right ahead here! Luke likes to tug toys, but we’ve never used the word. I was originally going to do it that way, but he only plays tug when he’s in the mood, so we didn’t have time to do that first! Keep your sessions short and only progress to the next step when you feel confident your dog is ready. If you move too fast, just go back to the previous step!

Hang toy or rag on cabinet handle. We started with cabinets because they are easier to open. Later on you can try a door left slightly ajar or other handles once you have the basics down. We started with our kitchen cabinets, but when they didn’t open smoothly, I moved to my bedroom bureau.

Mark with clicker or “yes” if your dog even looks at the toy, then immediately reward with treat.

Progress to when they actually touch the toy.

Next you want them to grab the toy. (We actually started at this point, because Luke automatically grabbed the toy at the beginning. I think using a toy that had already been played with was a big help). If your dog already knows “tug” you can start right here!

Next we want them to hold onto the toy for a length of time. This was our toughest step because Luke wanted to drop it immediately to get his treat. Sometimes you just have to wait for them to figure out exactly what you want.

Now we want them to pull on the toy!

Click and reward when the cabinet door actually moves. Keep increasing the amount it moves before rewarding until it opens all the way, and you’ve done it! You can start with the door slightly open if it makes it easier for it to move.

Once they have it down, move to different locations and different doors. With Luke I often have to start back at the beginning with each location, but it goes more quickly.

Don’t worry that your dog is going to run around the house opening things! As long as you aren’t hanging things on your knobs, I don’t think that will happen (plus they’re not learning to turn knobs!) 😊

I decided to put a treat inside the cabinet to try to get Luke to comprehend he needed to open the door all the way. The other reason I moved from the kitchen to the bedroom was that I wanted to leave the door slightly ajar to make it easier for Luke to pull on. The problem was the cabinet had to be opened a certain amount to do that, and when I did that, Luke would close it(last year’s trick)! My bureau door made it possible to have it not latched but closed enough that Luke didn’t think of it as open.

Now, watch the video to see the little game we started with all this. I wanted to do something a little more than just opening the door (such as dogs who might fetch a beer from the fridge like my nephew’s Lab does), but I wasn’t sure what. We weren’t going to be able to get that far in time for this hop anyway.

You can see in the video, we’re still working on it, and he doesn’t get it perfectly every time. But the extra little thing he did at the end, closing the door? That was all his idea! I only had him opening it to get a treat, he was the one that decided to close it at the end, thus making it into a fun little game. I’m so proud of him!

Now that you’ve learned our trick, see what you can win! Here’s how it works: enter our giveaway through the widget at the end of this post. Then visit each of the other participating blogs through the links to learn more tricks and enter there for more chances to win! At the end of the event, one winner is drawn from each blog, and those finalists go into a draw to win one of these five prizes:

Also, follow all of these blogs on Instagram and watch for a chance to win a $100 gift card to PetSmart between October 24th -27th! Follow the hashtag #TrickorTreatDogs.

Giveaway open to residents of USA and Canada only, 18 and over, void where prohibited. Starts October 20th and ends October 30th at 11:59pm PST, winners announced on October 31st. Prizes provided by sponsors and Wag ‘n Woof Pets is not responsible for prize fulfillment. No social media sites have endorsed this promotion.

I love that she closed the door. My dog would get into trouble if she figured out how to open our cabinets. She has chewed a lot of things including my husband shop vac and drill cord. Luckily they weren’t plugged in. She is getting better.

my girls can open doors, like the front door, but then they dont close it. they push and scratch on it til it opens. then they leave it open for all of the bugs and insects to get in the house. i would not want to teach my girls how to open the cabinets, they would get into everything. my house would be a total mess when i got home. i know if i taught them to open it with a string or tie they would figure out how to open it my putting their paws on the knobs, they i would be in real trouble.

My cat Smokey was a pro at opening cabinet doors. I had to put child safety devices on the bathroom cabinet so she couldn’t get in there. Raven opens the closet door almost every day, but it’s doesn’t latch shut so she just puts her paw under the door and pulls it open.

Cats are very smart and creative! Our late cat Don Juan used to open kitchen cabinets where his food was too. We’d put a rubber band around the handles, and then when we were trying to sleep at night, we’d hear a constant bang…bang…bang, as he tried to get the cabinet open but couldn’t all the way! 🙂

Teaching pets to open a cabinet … that would open a can of worms around here (I realize you use the pull added on so they aren’t tempted to try elsewhere). Bear manages to get his paw in the door – but the child latch ensures it doesn’t go any farther 🙂

Actually, I worry about my dogs learning how to open doors. Our patio doors have a lever-style handle, which is easy for them to open by accident. We have a fenced back yard, but with gates we can open and close to get our cars into the yard and the garage. If the dogs would ever get out when the gates are open, they could easily run off and get lost. I keep the back door locked except when we are going out of it or while at least one two-legged family member is in the yard with the dogs. Fun idea for a trick, but not appropriate for my dogs, I’m afraid.

Ah yes, I completely understand that. We had the same type of handles at our previous house, and we also had to keep them locked. There’s only one like that at our new house, but it leads to the fenced in yard; plus it’s so old it’s almost impossible for me to even open!

Great trick! And looks like a fun game. But definitely not one for Ducky – I don’t want her opening the kitchen door while Shadow is eating her breakfast or dinner. Or, opening the pantry door and stealing food/treats!

Luke is smart but, honestly, I don’t think he’d ever make the connection that he could use this to get into places he shouldn’t. Their food and treats are kept in a pantry with bi-fold doors that he couldn’t open the same way anyway, so we’re pretty safe here! 🙂

THAT’s fabulous! You did a great job. I think this might be an easy ‘game’ to teach Delilah too. Just like Emma’s I can see us setting up a little ‘game’ on those wintery days when it’s too icy to walk.

Thanks for sharing it, you made it look super easy, and it’s obvious how much Luke loved it.

wow that is a super prize… I can open doors, cabinets and drawers but I refuse to do it for the mama… she even smeared liver sausage at the door knob to encourage me, but I said no thanks, went down and opened the fridge ;o) … maybe lukje can come to help me? he also could close the doors, that’s something I always forget ;O)))

You are very brave and trusting to teach him to open doors! Mom doesn’t want us messing with doors, but we aren’t the types to really be interested in opening or closing them. The servant can do it for us 🙂

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